USA > Ohio > Delaware County > History of Delaware County and Ohio : containing a brief history of the state of Ohio biographical sketches etc. V. 1 > Part 41
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of Delaware; Dr. Mills, now of Trenton Town- ship; Drs. Lewis, White, Pencoast, Doty, Wilson, of Ashley ; Drs. Van Deman, D. C. Peterson,. Rowell, Benton, Skinner, Leach, were residents, at different times, of Millville. The profession in the county is thus represented at the present time, many of whom are noticed in the biographical department of this work. We give the year in which they came to the county, or the year they commenced practice.
Dr. H. N. Comer, 1852, Ashley; Dr. Erastus Field, 1852, Ostrander ; Dr. William McIntire, 1850, Millville ; Dr. James M. Cherry, 1850, Dela- ware ; Dr. J. M. Snodgrass, 1842, Delaware Coun- ty; Dr. Calvin Welch, 1853, Delaware ; Dr. Lewis Barnes, 1856, Delaware ; Dr. James H. White, 1856, Delaware; Dr. N. S. Samsell, 1858, Dela- ware; Dr. A. E. Westbrook, 1865, Ashley ; Dr. W. H. Pulford, 1873, Ashley ; Dr. D. C. Fay, 1866, Ostrander; Dr. W. E. Rowell, 1879, Mill- ville; Dr. F. W. Morrison, 1870, Delaware ; Dr. Joseph McCann, Sr., 1869, Delaware; Dr. A. W. Dumm, 1879, Delaware; Dr. W. F. Crick- ard, 1877, Delaware ; Dr. W. B. Hedges, 1879, Delaware ; Dr. J. O. McDowell. 1877, Delaware ; Dr. John W. Vogt, 1876, Delaware; Dr. James H. Hughes, 1879, Delaware; Dr. William Gold- rick, 1865, Delaware; Dr. W. T. Constant, 1869, Delaware; Dr. S. P. Cummings, 1869, Delaware; Dr. Henry Besse, 1864, Delaware; Dr. John H. Field, 1870, Ostrander ; Dr. E. H. Hyatt,* 1855, Delaware ; Dr. John W. Neil, 1871, Delaware ; Dr. Samuel White (colored), 1838, Delaware County ; Dr. S. W. Fowler, 1871, Delaware ; Dr. Lyman Potter, 1850. Delaware County; Dr. J. H. Smith, 1874, Eden ; Dr. J. C. Wintermute, 1875, Lewis Center; Dr. W. C. Mercer, 1851, Lewis Center : Dr. F. E. Eekelberry, 1877. Bellepoint; Dr. J. Edwards. 1879, Delhi ; Dr. J. McCann, Jr., 1879; Delhi; Dr. V. H. Goesling, 1877, Delhi ; Dr. G. F. Foster, 1870, Olive Greene : Dr. S. C. Dumm. 1873, Cheshire; Dr. W. T. Clute, 1879, Delaware; Dr. A. P. Taylor, 1871, Sun- bury; Dr. E. B. Mosher, 1873, Sunbury ; Dr. J. D. Williams, 1870, Sunbury.
It has been said that "associated action con- stitutes the main-spring-the controlling motive- power of society." When one looks over the present aspect and tendency of civilization, he will concede the truth of this saying. Thus it was that the early practitioners of the county saw the
* Dr. Hyatt was elected Professor of Therapeutics in the Columbus Medical College in 1875, a chair that he still occupies.
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239
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
great need of associated action, and set about form- ing a society. In or about 1848, Drs. Ralph Hills, Blymyer, Cherry, Gerhard, and a few others met in the room now occupied as the Mayor's office, and formed the first medical society of the county, known as the Delaware County Society. Dr. Hills was elected President, and Dr. Blymyer, Vice President, At this meeting Dr. Blymyer read his famous paper on "Milk Sickness.'
After a few years. this society went into a trance, in which condition it remained until 1868, when it was resuscitated by Drs. Blymyer, Williams. Con- stant, MeIntire, Little, Willis, Hyatt, White, Cherry, Besse, Welch, Carothers, and others. Dr. Blymyer was elected President. Dr. Willis, Vice President, and Dr. Hyatt, Secretary. In 1869,
Dr. Blymyer was re-elected, and when his term ex- pired he gave a banquet to his brethren-a social custom that has since been kept up by his success- ors. At the last annual meeting, the society, or as it is now called, the association, had an attend- ance of thirty-five members. The greatest har- mony prevailed throughout the entire meeting. Dr. James H. White was elected President, Dr. S. C. Dumm, Vice President, and Dr. J. C. Winter- mute, Secretary.
NOTE .- The historian deems it but a matter of justice to mention here that Dr. Fowler (who is too modest to mention it himself) prepared and read before the society, at its meeting, December 11, 1877, a paper on " Nervous Debility,", which was freely indorsed by some of the ablest physicians in the country, and was published by order of the society, for the benefit of its members. And at the meeting in January, 1880, he read a paper on "Scarlet Fever," which received high commendations, and was ordered published.
CHAPTER VI.
EARLY CHURCH HISTORY-SCHOOLS-SCHOOL STATISTICS-COMPULSORY EDUCATION-PIONEER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING-MORGAN ACADEMY-FEMALE SEMINARY-QUITMAN'S -OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY-WESLEYAN FEMALE COLLEGE-GIRLS'
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL-THE WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS-WHITE SULPHUR FOUNTAIN-THE PRESS.
If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust, but, if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with pure principles, with the just fear of God and love of fellowmen, we engrave on those tablets something which will brighten to all eternity .- Daniel Webster.
TT is a fact highly commendable to the early set- tlers of the county, that with all the trials inci- dent on settlement in a new and undeveloped country, and the numbers of rough and vicious men who always seek the frontiers, the teachings of the Christian religion were felt and realized in the most remote settlements. What a rebuke, too, is given to the ministers of the present, who, rolling in luxury, sleek in broadcloth and pompous from high living, seem totally oblivious of the self- sacrifice, devotion and arducus toil of those men who first planted the standard of the Cross in the sparsely settled frontiers of the West. Without hope of the least temporal remuneration, exposed to danger and disease, subject to the severest trials and most painful privations, they went out forego- ing all the joys of home and the society of loved ones, only to be instrumental in the advancement of the truth and the salvation of men. Often the poineer preacher, with no companion but the faith- ful horse he rode, would start across the country,
with no guide but the knowledge he had of the cardinal points, and, reaching the desired settlement, would present the claims of the Gospel to the few assembled hearers, after the toilsome and lonely day's journey ; then after a night's rest in the humble cabin, and partaking of the simple meal, he again enters upon the journey of the day, to preach again at a distant point. Thus the " cir- cuit " of hundreds of miles was traveled month after month ; and to these men we owe the plant- ing of churches all over our land, and the hal- lowed influences of religion as seen and felt in society everywhere.
At this late day, it is impossible to learn who was the first minister to visit the territory now embraced in Delaware County. The first of whom we have any reliable account were Revs. Drake and Hughes. They lived in Delaware, but we hear of them in all parts of the county, holding meetings and organizing churches. Rev. Drake was a Baptist, and Hughes was of the Presbyte- rian denomination. The people of the Berkshire settlement were in the habit of attending church now and then in Delaware, and in the eastern part of the county we learn there were only occasional
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240
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
religious meetings prior to 1815, except by the itinerant Methodists. Says a local chronicle : " Meetings were lield in the log schoolhouses or in the largest cabins. Quarterly meetings were held in Deacon Carpenter's barn, a little north of Sun- bury. Bishop Chase occasionally visited Berk- shire and preached in David and Joseph Pierce's barn. In 1818, Rev. Ebenezer Washburn, Pres- bvterian, came to Berkshire and settled, and was the first of that denomination to locate in that part of the county. He remained but two or three years, and then went to Genoa Township." The Baptists early formed a society in the present township of Brown. They erected a church north of Eden Village, so long ago that it has already crumbled into ruins. The Presbyterians and Methodists also had churches here in an early day. Another of the early ministers of the county was Rev. Van Deman, of Delaware, a Pres- byterian. He formed a church in Concord Town- ship, and used to preach at the cabin of Henry Crygder, occasionally. The first preachers noted in Liberty Township-the scenes of the first settlement in the county -- were Revs. Drake and Hughes, of Delaware. The Presbyterians built the first church in that settlement. Rev. Williams was a pioneer preacher of Genoa Township, as also Rev. Wigdea, of Kingston.
Thus the Gospel spread throughout the county, until every township, village and neighborhood has its church, with its spire reaching heavenward, and its congregation gathering around its altar on the Lord's day, offering praises to the Most High. We do not purpose to go into a detailed history of the churches in the county. This will be done in the chapters devoted to each town and township respectively. We have intended, only, to notice briefly the introduction of Christianity and the Gospel, and to contrast the past with the present. Those who remember the pioneer preach- er, and his life of toil; how he-
"Through cold and storms of rain and snow, Both day and night, was called to go-"
and how he preached salvation, without money and without price, will not deny the fact. that, in the way of progress, Christianity has kept pace with worldly matters.
As early as 1647, a move was made in the New England colonies, looking to the establishment of common schools. The following law was adopted in the year noted. by the people of that region, the Athens of America : " It being a chief proj- ect of that old deluder, Sathan, to keep men from
the knowledge of the Scriptures, it is determined that every child, rich and poor alike, shall have the privilege of learning to read its own language." Following the promulgation of this law, it was then enacted that "every town or district having fifty householders should have a common school;" and, that " every town or district having one hun- dred families should have a grammar school, taught by teachers competent to prepare youth for college." A modern writer, commenting on this movement of our New England fathers, extols it as an event deserving of more than mere record. He says: "It was the first instance in Christendom, in which a civil government took measures to con- fer upon its youth the blessings of education. There had been, indeed, parish schools connected with individual churches, and foundations for universities, but never before was embodied in practice a principle so comprehensive in its nature and so fruitful in good results as that of training a nation of intelligent people by educating all its youth." One hundred and forty years later, when our forefathers declared in their ordinance (of 1787) that knowledge, with religion and morality, "was necessary to the good government and hap- piness of mankind," and "that schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged " -they suggested the very bulwark of American liberty. About the time that ordinance was adopted, science and literature began to advance in a man. ner they had never done before, and the interest awakened at that time is still on the advance.
In the early development of Ohio, there was a great variety of influences in the way of general education. The settlements were sparse, and money or other means of remunerating teachers was scarce, as the pioneers of new countries are nearly always poor. There were no schoolhouses erected, nor was there any public school-fund, either State or county. All persons, of both sexes, who had physical strength enough to labor, were compelled to take their part in the work of securing a support-the labor of the female being as heavy and important as that of the men; and this continued so for years. In the last place, both teachers and books were extremely scarce. Taking all these facts together, it is a wonder that they had any schools whatever. But the pioneers of Ohio deserve the highest honors for their prompt and energetic efforts in this direction. Just so soon as the settlements would at all jus- tify, schools were begun at each one. The teacher or pupil of to-day has no conception of getting
241
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
an education under difficulties. It may be of some interest to the rising generation to have a descrip- tion of the primitive schoolhouse. A description of one will suffice for all, as there was but one style of architecture observed in building them. They were erected, not by subscription, but by labor given. The neighbors would gather to- gether at some point previously agreed upon, and, with ax in hand, the work was soon done. Logs were cut sixteen or eighteen feet in length, and of these the walls were raised. Broad boards com- posed the roof, and a rude fireplace and clap-board door, a puncheon floor, and the cracks filled with "chinks," and these daubed over with mud, com- pleted the schoolhouse, with the exception of the windows and furniture. The window, if any, was made by cutting out a log the full length of the building, and over the opening, in winter, paper saturated with grease served to admit the light. Just under this window, two or three strong pins were driven in the log in a slanting direction. On these pins, a long " puncheon " was fastened, and this was the writing-desk for the whole school. For seats, they used benches made from small trees, cut in lengths of ten or twelve feet, split . open, and, in the round side, two large holes were bored at each end, and in each, a stout pin fifteen inches long was driven. These pins formed the legs. On the uneven floors these rude benches were hardly ever seen to have more than three legs ou the floor at one time. And the books! They were
as primitive as the houses. The New Testament, when it could be had, was the most popular reader,
though occasionally a copy of the old "English
Reader" was found, and very rarely, the " Colum-
bian ( rator " was in a family. Pike's and Smi-
ley's Arithmetics, Webster's Speller, was first
used, and after a while the " Elementary Speller "
came in. Grammar was scarcely ever taught ; when it was, the text-books used were Murray's and Kirkham's Grammars. The schools were
$1 to $2.50 per scholar for a term of three made by subscription, the terms being from
months, the schools usually being taught in mid- winter to give the boys a chance to attend, as at
that season there was but little work to do on the farm. But we will not follow the description further. Those who have known only our perfect
system of schools of the present can scarcely form
or sixty years ago. There are many, however, still an idea of their limited extent and capacity fifty
living in Delaware County, who can very clearly realize the above picture of the pioneer schoolhouse.
It is a strange but very creditable fact, that schools were begun in the principal centers of the early settlements nearly at the same time, and within a very few years after the first settlers came to the country. . It cannot be now stated with any degree of certainty who taught the first school in the county, or where it was taught. But we find that the subject of schools was one that received attention in every neighborhood, and that, too, at a very early period. Sometimes these schools were taught at the cabin of some settler who had a little spare room; sometimes in an abandoned cabin, or an unused shed, and sometimes even in rail pens prepared temporarily for the purpose. In Berk- shire Township, we learn that the first school was taught by Clara Thompson for a term of three months; and that the first schoolhouse erected in that settlement was a small cabin built of rough logs, and located a little south of the Granville road. Cynthia Sloper taught the next school after Miss Thompson, and Solomon Smith taught the first winter school. The first school taught in what is now Berlin Township was in an old vacant cabin in the settlement, by Julia Ripley, nee Calk- ins. The block-house erected in this settlement during the early Indian wars, was, when no longer required for defense, converted into a temple of learning, and in it Prof. Burr held sway, as early as 1811. David Eaton taught the first school in the present township of Brown, in a little house built for school purposes, on the north side of the graveyard, at Eden. Anthony Griffith succeeded him as pedagogue of the Alum Creek settlement, as it was then called. The first school in what is now Concord Township was taught in an old granary donated by James Kocken for the pur- pose; but who was the teacher we could not learn. This was used some time as both church and schoolhouse, when Henry Cryder, removing into a new and better house, gave his old one for a schoolhouse; and John Wilson taught the first school in it. It stood on the site of the present United Brethren Church. In the present town- ship of Troy, a Mrs. Bush taught the first school ; and a man named Goop taught the first winter school in what is now Trenton. while one Clarissa Studyvant taught during the summer. The first schoolhouse in this settlement was erected on Big Walnut, on the Mount Vernon road. In what is now Thompson, James Crawford was the first ped- agogue, and held forth in a small bewed-log cabin on Fulton Creek. Mrs. Nidy taught the first school in the Scioto settlement in a rude hut,
Y
242
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
abandoned as a cattle-shed, by James McCune. In what is now Radnor Township, Dr. Dickey takes rank as the first teacher, and occupied a small building which had been erected for the purpose on the "plat of New Baltimore." A block- house erected in this neighborhood during the war was turned to use as a school edifice when the war was over. A Mr. Penny was also an early teacher in Radnor. Elizabeth Heath taught the first school in the present town of Oxford, and Robert Louther, the first in what is now Marl- borough. He taught in a small cabin just east of the river from Norton. In the Harlem neigh- borhood, David Gregory was the first teacher of whom we have any record; and the first school- house was erected on the site of Harlem Chapel. Lawson Gooding taught the first school in what is now Genoa Township, in a cabin erected on the farm of Ralph Smith. In Kingston, we learn that Miss Eliza String was the first school- ma'am. She taught in a small house known as the "Curtis Schoolhouse," from the fact of its having been erected on the land of Charles Cur- tis. Such were some of the early schools in this county, and the difficulties under which they were inaugurated and carried on. The patience required by the teachers to bear them up through the trials and difficulties under which they labored would appall the modern schoolma'am and discour- age her hopelessly in her daily tasks. As we write upon the subject, the following lines float up in our mind:
"The schoolhouse stood beside the way, A shabby building, old and gray, With rattling sash and loose-hung door, And rough, uneven walls and floor;
And why the little homespun crew
It gathered were some ways more blest Than others, you would scarce have guessed; It is a secret known to few. *
* *
* **
*
*
Only the teacher-wise of heart-
Divined the landscape's blessed art;
And when she felt the lag and stir
Of her young idlers fretting her, Outglancing o'er the meadows wide. The ruffling woods, the far hillside,
She drew fresh breath of God's free grace,
A gentler look came in her face; Her kindly voice caught in its own An echo of .that pleasant tone
In which the great world sang its song-
"' Be cheerful, patient, still and strong.'"
By way of contrasting the early schools with the present perfect system of education, now in suc- cessful operation throughout the State of Ohio, we
give a few statistics pertaining to this county, as extracted from the last report of Hon. J. J. Burns, State Commissioner of common schools, made to the General Assembly for 1878 :
AMOUNT OF SCHOOL MONEYS RECEIVED WITHIN THE YEAR.
Balance on hand, September 1, 1877. $ 46,899 19 State tax : 12,701 25 Irreducible school fund .. 794 39
Local tax for school and schoolhouse pur- poses .. 44,379 08
Fines, licenses, tuition of non-resident pu- pils, etc 2,897 99
Total receipts
$107,671 88
AMOUNT EXPENDED WITHIN THE YEAR. Amount paid teachers-Primary $39,485 28
High 3,898 50
Total.
$43,383 78
Managing and superintending. 800 00
Sites and buildings. 9,154 16
Interest on, or redemption of bonds 147 30
Fuel and other contingent expenses 9,460 55
Total expenses
$62,945 79
Balance on hand, September 1, 1878.
$44,726 09
NUMBER OF YOUTHS BETWEEN SIX AND
YEARS.
TWENTY-ONE
White-Males
4,413
Females 3,962
Total 8,375
Colored-Males.
68
Females 71
Total
139
Total white and colored in county 8,514
Number in United States Military District, 7,586
Number in Virginia Military District ...... 928
Total.
8,514
Population of county in 1870 25,175
Enumeration youth of school age in 1878. 8,514
Per cent. enumeration of population. 34
Number of townships in county 18
Number of subdivisions in county 146
Number of separate districts.
7
Subdivisions included in separate districts. 11
WHOLE NUMBER OF SCHOOLHOUSES.
Townships-Primary.
146
Separate districts-Primary
11
Total 157
TOTAL VALUE OF SCHOOL PROPERTY.
Townships-Primary.
$ 95,100 00
Separate districts-Primary
103,300 00
Grand Total
$198,400 00
243-244
DELAWARE COUNTY JAIL, DELAWARE.
-
245
NUMBER OF TEACHERS NECESSARY TO SUPPLY THE
SCHOOLS.
Townships.
149
Separate districts. 39
Total 188
NUMBER OF DIFFERENT TEACHERS EMPLOYED IN THE WITHIN THE YEAR.
Townships-Males. 97
Females. 183
Tota
280
Separate districts-Primary-Males
Females 30
High-Males
4
Females.
-
Total 38
Grand Total
318
NUMBER OF DIFFERENT PUPILS ENROLLED.
Townships-Primary-Boys. 2,793
Girls 2,298
Total. 5,091
Separate districts-primary-Boys 869 Girls .. 898
High-Boys
112
Girls 173
Total
2,052
Grand Total.
7,143
AVERAGE ATTENDANCE.
Townships -- Primary -- Boys
1,702
Girls
1,456
Total 3,158
Separate districts -- Primary -- Boys 575
Girls 610
High-Boys. 64
Girls
102
Total. 1,351
Grand Total
4,509
Upon the subject of " Compulsory Education," Mr. Burns, in his report from which we have taken the above statistics, says: "Concerning the right of State or government to pass and carry into effect what are known as compulsory laws, and require parents and guardians, even against their will. to send children to school, there does not appear to be much diversity of opinion. Concerning the policy thereof dependent upon so many known and un- known conditions, there is the widest diversity. I can write no history of the results of the act of !
March 20, 1877, for it does not seem to have any. A great good would be wrought if the wisdom of the General Assembly could devise some means which shall strengthen and supplement the powers of boards of education. and enable them to prevent truancy, even if only in cases where parents desire their children to attend school regularly, but pa- rental authority is too weak to secure that end. The instances are not few in which parents would welcome aid in this matter, knowing that truancy is often the first step in a path leading through the dark mazes of idleness, vagabondage and crime.
" Whatever may be said of young children work- ing in mills and factories, youthful idlers upon the streets of our towns and cities should be gathered up by somebody and compelled to do something. If they learn nothing else, there will be at least this salutary lesson. that society is stronger than they, and, without injuring them, will use its strength to protect itself. While we are establish- ing reform schools for those who have started in the way to their own ruin, and have donned the uniform of the enemies of civil society, it would be a heavenly importation to provide some way to res- cue those who are yet only lingering around the camp."
This portion of our history would doubtless be thought incomplete, without an extract or two from an article in the Western Collegian, written by Dr. Hills, and entitled " Pioneer Institutions of Learn- ing:" "The Faculty and students of the O. W. U. have a fancy that theirs is the pioneer institution of learning located on our Campus. But they are mis- taken. It happens to be the third, or even the fourth, in chronological order. What its relative position may be in order of merit, we will not stop now to investigate. We can only give a few partic- ulars regarding the true pioneers. These earlier in- stitutions had some advantage over the modern ones. They had no large building fund to be quarreled over ; no large endowment funds to trouble the treasurer for investment beyond his own wants; no unwieldy machinery of management, as boards of trustees with their gearings of cams and eccen- trics ; no large faculty, which, on chemical analysis, is found composed of incompatibles, the light- weights getting atop in the test-tube. The curric- ulum of study was soon disposed of, consisting generally of the three R.'s only ; no horde of book publishers and booksellers then annoyed them, as any rebellion against Dilworth, Webster, Murray, Daboll and Pike, would have been a cer- tain failure.
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